Younger Persons are More Likely to Adopt the Mobile Wallet than Older Persons, or are they? The Moderating Role of Age.

Smartphones, when loaded with a secure software application, can act as a mobile wallet. When face-to-face in a retail store, consumers are able to swipe their phone over the terminal and complete payment without having to produce the physical card. The number of terminals that accept contactless payments in the USA is growing as the country moves to the adoption of the ‘chip and pin’ standard. Consumers can choose from wallet providers such as Google, PayPal and ApplePay. This research seeks to explain the factors that influence adoption. Data from an empirical study of US consumers is analyzed with PLS and the influence of trust, word of mouth and facilitating conditions are determined to be significant. After segmenting the data into two groups based on age and with the help of multigroup analysis, age is determined not to be a moderating factor for owners of smartphones.